Page 11 of Almost Love

Why?

Mack

I sometimes forget how bad you are at peopling.

Clementine

I’m not bad at peopling, I don’t want to deal with them.

Mack

Take him cupcakes. Dig says so too. Apparently your cupcakes are the best.

Clementine

Thank you, Dig.

Mack

And I’m insignificant.

Clementine

*middle finger emoji* *black heart emoji*

When she stepped back out, phone tucked away in her pocket, Frankie and the couple were in a serious discussion about cakes. She hugged her iPad to her chest and walked over. “Everything okay?”

Mike nodded. “Oh yeah. We’re all trying to get on the same page with the best flavor.”

“I think it’s the Chai one, Mike says Raspberry Champagne and Frankie says Hazelnut Praline,” Stacy added.

“Good choices,” she said, glancing at Frankie who shrugged. “How about you take them home, have someone else try them. Or even give it another shot tomorrow and see what works. Like I said, you don’t have to make a decision right now.”

“Are you sure?”

“Absolutely,” Frankie said before Clementine could. “You just need to get back to me before the end of the week.”

When Stacy and Mike agreed to take the cakes home, Roscoe packed everything up. Then the bride and groom departed, leaving Frankie and Clementine slumped against the table.

“You really need to stop making such good cakes.” Frankie nudged her.

“Or maybe I shouldn’t give them so many choices.”

“Or, make that many choices, but give me half of it.” Frankie winked and grabbed her things as she headed for the door. “I’ll see you in a few days!”

Once the bakery settled into its normal quiet, Clementine retreated to her office. Now she needed to figure out cupcakes for Oakley. Cupcakes that would impress him, but also seem like an apology. The thing was, she’d never been in a situation like this before. Everyone who knew her knew that she didn’t the best relationship with people, and they accepted her for the way she was. Oakley was new and didn’t know her, but that didn’t mean she could be mean to him. Even though the angel on her shoulder and her heart were battling it out, Clementine knew the right thing to do—apologize, be his friend and then move on with her life.

So…no crushing on the pretty tattooed surfer guy, right?

CHAPTER 4

“So I told her it’s very important to me and she said I shouldn’t come home if I spend all my money on this,” Sam, his client for the day, continued. Oakley had tuned out a while ago, because it was always the same thing with Sam. He was addicted to weird, kitschy tattoos and his wife hated them. So whenever Sam was on his table, he whined about his ‘unsupportive’ wife. Oakley thought the man should have been grateful that he had someone who cared. Someone who tried to stop him from getting the strangest shit inked into his skin.

In the five weeks he’d been working at A Fine Needle, Sam had come in five times. Every time the tattoo was wilder and more entertaining. He’d inked a kitten-puppy combo of sorts the first time, then a dick with roses wrapped around it and that day he was working on a smiling alligator wearing a bowler hat and the top half of a tuxedo. For the most part, he had no issue tattooing odd things on people, but he’d tried to change Sam’s mind about the rose-covered dick and failed. Now, he did what Sam wanted.

The other reason he wasn’t listening was because his mind was filled with thoughts of Clementine. He knew that herturning him down was a sign that he needed to let it go. Except, every time he tried to move forward, he’d take two steps back. It had been a week since their conversation and her emphaticno, and he was still thinking about her. About the shape of her mouth when it twitched as she fought back a smile. About the way her eyes lit up as she talked about her favorite kind of coffee. Hell, he was also thinking about the coffee she served him. He’d been tempted to do some research about it, but knew once he fell down that hole, he’d never recover. Especially since he was still reeling from googling her and all the things he found.

He needed to recover from the Clementine Effect first.

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